A SUCCESSFUL year for Okehampton College students was celebrated last week at the college's annual Major Awards Evening.

The annual awards evening celebrates the successes of many of its students in all fields of academic endeavour, and capped a year in which the college has achieved unparalleled academic success at Key Stage 3, GCSE and A-level.

At the event, held in the Octagon Theatre on December 17, principal Mr Chris Powell thanked parents, students and staff for their contribution to this success.

Awards were given for sporting contribution, Iain Sercombe and Jenny Rice were commended for excellent AS-level results in PE. Georgina Geikie received an award for sporting achievement which included winning the gold medal in shooting for her country.

Pamela Dennis was the first recipient of a new award for skill as a dual linguist.

The annual Rotarian awards for academic excellence at A-level went to Pamela Collins and Peter Herrod-Taylor with special notice being given to Clare Lunk, Tamsin Woodland and Anna Snellgrove for their A-level success.

Peter was also awarded subject prizes for mathematics, physics and chemistry, Pamela for English, mathematics and history, Andrew Lewis for biology and Jenna Morris for communications.

The Albert Fulwood Rotarian Awards for excellence at GCSE were given to Jonathan Hudson-Jones, Amy Stevens and Zoe Elliot-Shircore, with special notice being given to Sophie Yeo, Louise Graham and Caroline Law.

In the fields of music, art and English, awards were given to Aaron Diaz for music, Ben Newton and George Argles for art, Sammy Burdus for media studies, and Clare Lunk and Alicia Evans for English. A-level subject prizes went to Angelique de La Fontaine and Anna Snellgrove for drama, and Georgina Geikie for technology.

The Russ Thomas Award for technology was given to Amanda Friend.

The awards ceremony also noted the achievements of those young people who through sheer hard work and their own efforts achieved well beyond all that they might have expected, these included Tom Smith, Steven Gay, John Cummings, Shane Brownless and Perdi Mann.

The college also drew attention to those young people that help others, Hannah Stevens achieved the Okehampton Police Endeavour Award and Stacey Balsdon was awarded the Principal's Special Award for Achievement as reward for her efforts in raising funds for Cancer Research.

One of the Ten Tors groups was admirably led by Catherine Pratt who received the Major Ryan Award as recognition of her leadership qualities.

Jemma Costello was thanked by a video-link for all her hard work in winning the HSBC Vocational Educational Award.

The Adult and Community Learning department were also pleased to give their awards to Roy Stacey and Brenda Bourne.

l Students with their awards. Pic by Ian Snell